cartel

CEFRC1

/kɑːˈtɛl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A group of businesses that secretly control prices or supply.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A combination of political groups (notably parties) for common action.

Examples

  • Tom got into trouble with the cartel in Mexico.

  • What does the cartel say?

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A written letter of defiance or challenge.

  2. A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.

  3. An official agreement concerning the exchange of prisoners.

More examples

In context

  • He is cowed at the very idea of a cartel.

  • Over the past decade, the very nature of organized crime has changed, with many groups diversifying their income beyond drug trafficking, and large cartels splintering into smaller, oftentimes more nimble groups.

  • He then sent down a flag of truce in military style, proposing a cartel or exchange of prisoners – the corporal for the notary.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The international blank controlled the supply of diamonds to keep prices high.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense, like the German sense, was borrowed from French cartel in the sixteenth century, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta (“card, page”), from Latin charta.